Author: DC
Date: October 2010
Word count: 1,350
Ladies and gentleman, I believe that we have reached a landmark moment in the history of the human race. A moment that shall be remembered with some fondness, a touch of sorrow, and a great deal of awe by those who lived through it – and yet a moment that will scarcely be understood by those born after it. A moment that all men should rise up and celebrate, sure in the knowledge that... oh, sorry, I was getting carried away a bit there. Everyone wants to be Abraham Lincoln, right? But seriously, during this past month I do believe that we have witnessed something momentous – we have seen cursing cease to be cool. Let’s face it, as much as we’d all like to think that we’re mature, grown-up adults, most of us (the religious aside, to whom I would like to apologise for the entirety of this article) have gotten a bit of a kick out of well-implemented swearing. Not just random cursing or vulgarity but the unleashing of a perfectly timed, well-chosen curse word (none of which I can say while writing here, of course) can be satisfying, and can give us a brief thrill. In the modern world there aren’t too many ways for a guy or girl to feel like an outlaw, a badass, a wild person (unless, of course, you actually are any of things. In which case more power to you, and good luck dodging the parole officers), but dropping an f-bomb when you really shouldn’t can do that. But I think even this thrill may be on the wane. Let me explain...
Here’s the theory: cursing has gotten its cachet, its frisson of danger, its cool, because according to social norms it has always been viewed as marginally unacceptable behaviour. And almost everyone, even if they are otherwise entirely clean-living and well-meaning folk, likes to think of themselves as a rule breaker, of someone who just occasionally is willing to be unacceptable. As a result, when we curse it makes us feel just a little bit cool, that we may be 99% certified public accountant but that we’re still 1% Roger Sterling. I believe that social norms have now changed to such an extent, however, that cursing is no longer really unacceptable to most people and is in fact viewed as just part of the dialogue, as something that even the most straight-laced of us are expected to do. Given that, it’s no longer cool. What is more, I think we can see evidence of this by looking at four pop songs of recent years, all of which flirt with the f-word.
Song one: F*** It (I Don’t Want You Back) by Eamon. This was the first song of a pop persuasion to be so completely upfront in its use of the f-word, to the extent that it caused a social scandal on release. Sure, hip-hop songs had been laced with profanity for years before this, and hard rock songs had always featured their fair share of cursing, but genres always appealed to a non-mainstream demographic and as such their use of cuss words can’t be taken as evidence as a broad social trend. Eamon, however, inspired a real backlash, with commentators condemning him for his inability to express himself to a lady without dropping the bomb (and, not uncoincidentally, ladies dissing him for being a total ass). Given this, F*** It serves as both evidence that times were changing – someone could write and release, and have a hit with, a song featuring some hardcore swearing – but also a clear indicator that as recently as eight years ago it was still seen by the majority of people as unacceptable that curse words be used in popular songs and cultural dialogue.
Song two: If You Seek Amy by Britney Spears. Now fast forward a few years, and you can find incontrovertible evidence that attitudes have really moved on. On the face of it, this song was to a great extent even more risqué than the Eamon number (and wasn’t sung by a guy who would surely be on Jersey Shore if he’d been born ten years later, which must be a good thing). This wasn’t because of outright cursing – in fact, if you read the lyric sheet Britney doesn’t swear once while singing this song. Instead, she simply talks to a guy who is looking for a girl in a club, hence “if you seek Amy” (if you don’t get it, just say it fast. There you go). But that cute use of pronunciation doesn’t hide the fact that somehow this song is more shocking than F*** It simply because it serves no other purpose than to be a delivery system custom-designed to get 12 year old girls cussing like troopers. It’s a blatant attempt to sidestep censorship and deliver serious profanity to a tween audience. The telling thing, though, was that Britney didn’t receive a quarter of the backlash that Eamon did. Even though she was using a schoolyard trick to get young children to buy and sing a song during which the singer clearly invites someone to... well, you know... people couldn’t find it in themselves to get too worked up, because attitudes were changing.
Song three: Florida University by The-Dream. Another landmark song, released earlier this year by The-Dream on his “Love King” record. This track had a sing-song refrain that was sure to get everyone in the club up and a-cursin’ (“F-U, F-U, F-U [repeat until out of breath]”) and was even more knowing than Britney in the way that it went about its business, with The-Dream even noting sarcastically that the track was “a hell of a clean version”. It got radio play, again aimed at a young adult audience, and it shocked absolutely no-one. There was no complaint or surprise, and there was certainly no outrage. It had become perfectly acceptable for the hook of a sugar pop record to feature a strong curse.
Song four: F*** You by Cee-Lo Green. No surprises what the last song is, given its cultural ubiquity this year – and that in itself says it all. Not only was there no shock value in Cee-Lo releasing this song (other than some minor Fox News scare-mongering and chatter, which bordered on the racist in the extent to which it focussed on Cee-Lo’s blackness as a cause of his addiction to the f-word) but the track was actually viewed as cute and fun. As fluffy and kittenish. The opposite, in other words, of dangerous cool. Yes, this is part to do with the funky soul-drenched tone of the music, and the degree to which the venom of the swearing is undercut by how oddly loveable Cee-Lo is), but it also reflects the fact that any residual outlaw spirit attached to swearing has died and gone, the fact that cussing is no longer cool.
This mirrors what we’ve seen about the presentation of sex and sexuality in popular culture. Just as cursing has crossed over, so it has become more acceptable to talk about sex in a frank and up-front fashion. Again hip-hop was doing this comfortably before pop was, but chart pop and even songs aimed at young audiences are now talking pretty explicitly about sex, as anyone who has heard a Ke$ha or Gaga song this year knows. Just about the only barrier that hasn’t been surmounted is open discussion of male gay sex, and even that has to happen sooner rather than later.
So The-Dream’s song is likely to be the last of a breed, the last song to have any residual novelty value or to receive a boost by trading on profanity. For some this will be a refreshing sign that society is at last getting over some quite antiquated hang ups about language and sex. For others it will be a worrying sign that a set of desirable cultural values has been eroded, and that the young are being exposed to too much too young. Either way, we’ll all have to find new ways of convincing ourselves that we’re still badasses...
